The obscure cover that kickstarted Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath are arguably one of the most influential bands of the 1970s. A testament to working-class Britain at the time, school friends Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi and Bill Ward all came together in order to create heavy and twisted blues rock which would continue to take the world by storm for decades to come.
The band were originally called Polka Tulk and Earth. It was Butler who opted to change the name to Black Sabbath after a song he wrote which was inspired by a Boris Karloff movie. The name Black Sabbath resonated with them so much that it became the name of the band, a crucial song and the album. As such, a lot of people mistakenly think that it was the first single the band ever released, but they would be wrong.
The first single that the band ever put out was a cover of ‘Evil Woman’, which is originally by Crow, a Minneapolis-St. Paul band from the 1960s. The song was released in 1969 and did reasonably well, reaching number 19 on the US charts. The vocals are relatively gothic, and the sparsity between the horns gives it a head-banging effect, making it clear why the track appealed to the members of Black Sabbath so much.
Osbourne and company took the song and covered it, keeping the structure exactly the same but replacing the horns with heavy guitar and changing the title to ‘Evil Woman (Don’t Play Your Games With Me)’. They liked the way that it came together so much that the band decided to release it as their very first single.
The track has a scattered history from country to country. It was originally brought out in England in the same year as its release by Crow. Then, when the Sabbath brought out their first album, Black Sabbath, it could be found on the European versions of it. That being said, audiences in America had to wait slightly longer. It was brought out as the B-Side to ‘Wicked World’ but then wouldn’t be officially released in North America until 2002, when it made an appearance on a compilation album called Symptom of the Universe: The Original Black Sabbath 1970-1978.
Releasing the cover as the band’s first single was a bold but good move. The actual song ‘Black Sabbath’, despite being viewed as a classic now, was heavily conceptualised in its construction and, therefore, might have proven difficult for audiences to get into. It is dragged out and reminiscent of a horror soundtrack, the storyline long and in-depth, with the eventual payoff taking time to get to. Releasing an already-known song but with the classic Black Sabbath twist was a great way to get people hooked on the band’s heaviness and Osbourne’s infectious vocals.
This laid the groundwork on which the band could build the rest of their career. They are now considered rock royalty, and songs like ‘Paranoid’ ‘Iron Man’ and ‘War Pigs’ are a lot of music fans’ all-time favourites. It’s hard to believe it all started with a cover which has since fallen under the radar.
